Wednesday, 25 August 2010

I had resisted the temptation to buy a pair of plastic sandals, known by their more common brand name of Crocs.

Embedded in my memory banks was my late mother's advice to always buy leather; plastic was in those times regarded as a substitute that only the poor should contemplate.

In Singapore most of the shoe stores are festooned with Crocs in a dazzling array of colours, always highly priced and rarely discounted.

They are in fact a modern form of galoshes or goloshes, to use the pre-1920 British spelling. First references to this type of overshoe came in the Middle Ages from the Gaulish shoe or gallicae.

Back in New Zealand we frequent the Number One Shoe Warehouse to buy our cheaper footwear. Yesterday we discovered quite by chance their outlet store in the suburb of Glenn Innes.

The place of full of cheap Chinese clones of better known brands and I brought a pair of red plastic sandals for $10. They look identical to the aforementioned Crocs and were probably made in the same factory, but they are completely devoid of any branding.

I intend using them for garage shoes but will not be taking them on the streets for fear that their bright ruby red colour will stop cars in their tracks.

Now I discover that this same footwear exposes the wearer to other hazards as the Singapore video below shows.